Videos of a young couple engaging in sexual intercourse in a moving Namo Bharat train on the Ghaziabad-Meerut section of the RRTS network went viral on social media.
An investigation was taken up by the police as they got in touch with National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC), which runs the network, officials.
An official from NCRTC, who did not wish to be named, told Hindustan Times, “The videos were from last month (November); an investigation has been initiated and some action has also been taken. We are also in the process of taking up drives to make people more aware.”
Following the investigation, NCRTC has suspended an RRTS (Namo Bharat) train operator, Rishabh, and lodged an FIR against him for allegedly filming the passengers and later circulating the video, according to a report by The Times of India. The incident took place in a nearly empty train coach on November 24. The operator was terminated for violating NCRTC protocols, which strictly prohibit staff from recording or sharing surveillance footage.
“On Monday, we got an FIR registered under BNS sections 296 (obscene acts in a public place) and 77 (voyeurism), and Section 67 of the IT Act, which concerns publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form. The FIR mentions the train operator, who was found to have recorded the act from the live CCTV feed and circulated it, as well as the unknown couple involved,” the NCRTC official told TOI.
Therefore, the train operator was dismissed from services by the company on December 3 because he made the video viral, the FIR added further.
The police said that the train operator allegedly captured the feed from inside the train on his mobile, and the train running parameters appearing in the videos suggest so.
“We have registered an FIR after the officials of the concerned agency arrived at Muradnagar and filed a police complaint. The police will now trace the couple and will also get in touch with the train operator as part of the investigation. The videos that went viral will also be a part of the case investigation,” said Surendra Nath Tiwary, DCP of the rural zone.
The police officials said that they suspect that the couple could be from colleges located near the alignment of the Namo Bharat route.
At least four different videos of the incident inside the train went viral on social media last week, prompting the agencies to act and give a police complaint.
HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
A query was raised to the corporate communication department of the NCRTC on December 20 for a detailed response about the videos and the incident. But a response from NCRTC remained awaited.
The query sought a response about the delay in reporting the matter to the police, how the feed from inside the train was captured, and what improvement measures were taken up.
